I agree. Case in point is that the author jumped in at the iPhone 7 which is a lot closer to current era iPhones than the original iPhone and had been refined over that many generations. My first iPhone was the 5s, my first Apple Watch was the 6. I tend to hang back and wait a few generations before adopting a new product from Apple. I suspect Apple Intelligence will be a lot better 1-2 years from now.

This is true, but sometimes the opposite is also true. Case in point, HomePod sucked so much they never became useful. It was discontinued

Which one was discontinued?

This one: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-homepod/homepod Or this one: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-homepod/homepod-mini

I find them better than the multiple Echoes we have. Though they don't do as much, what HomePods do do is generally better than Amazon's attempts. Can't comment on Google's equivalent.